Eat and meet

Pleiku

Pleiku is known for selling cheap goods by the bushel, but food is not its strong point. You'll find a lot of rice and noodle joints around town, and there's nothing that makes one a stand out from the others -- it's like one, long, continuous, Vietnamese truck-stop diner. Perhaps this is why My Tam 1 and My Tam 2 restaurants, located a block away from each other, are wildly popular with locals and tourists alike. The roasted chicken with rice here is actually some of the best we've had in Vietnam. Also worth mentioning, the restaurant next door to the Mini Hotel, Hanh Dao, serves a good variety of tasty Vietnamese fare and has a decent atmosphere.

Pleiku is on the edge of a valley, and there is one restaurant in town that takes full advantage of this. Thien Thanh is located on a side road off of Pham Van Dong just north of the intersection with Le Loi. The road descends steeply into the valley, straight to the restaurant. You may be surprised to find a good deal of natural beauty hidden away down there -- the restaurant has seating in salas spread out around the edge of a expanse of rice fields with hills in the distance. We can't vouch for the menu, but they serve the typical variety of Vietnamese seafood and meat dishes, the menus are in English, and the mains start at about 40,000 per plate, meant to be shared by a table of people.

For a fancy feast, try out the Acacia Restaurant on the Hoang Anh Gia Lai Hotel, south of town. They have a selection of Thai dishes in the 30- to 85,000 VND range, along with some western favorites like burgers, spaghetti, pork chops, and fish and chips. The menu is huge, and the price range and variety are impressive -- you can pay a million dong for a plate of weasel or pangolin, if you like. The lobby also has a good atmosphere for a civilized, albeit pricey, drink.